These employees normally had J-1 visas, that are issued to college students, au pairs, medical doctors, professors, students, and specialists, amongst others. The issue is that the VOA’s J-1 visas are tied to their continued employment by USAGM. Since Lake fired them, they’ve 30 days to depart the nation or discover another strategy to keep right here.
These fired employees face an enormous disaster. Do they return to their house international locations? Apply for asylum right here? What about these people who find themselves from a rustic the place they are going to be harmed in the event that they return?
Lake doesn’t care. To her, it’s an enormous joke—actually. She joshed with right-wing media hack Eric Bolling, saying, “If I have to go to the airport with them, and accompany them to the airport and get them on the flight, I will do that.” When Bolling mentioned they might as an alternative go to Florida’s immigrant detention facility within the Everglades, the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz,” the place human rights abuses are rampant, Lake laughed.
Work progresses on a brand new migrant detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” at Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition facility within the Florida Everglades on July 4 in Ochopee, Florida.
“If you overstay your visa, ICE is going to find you,” she mentioned. “And they will find you in this case as well.”
Lake isn’t alone in attempting to throw J-1 visa holders in a foreign country. The administration has tried to go after Harvard College on J-1 visas as properly, saying it wanted to research the college’s compliance with this system. Actually, it’s only a strategy to screw with Harvard and block worldwide college students, so a two-fer for this administration. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is not any slouch both. His division has been revoking J-1 scholar visas for months now, concentrating on anybody who participated in political activism the administration doesn’t like.
All of this comes because the administration fails to fulfill its personal deportation objectives. And so they’ve lengthy stopped pretending they’re going after the worst of the worst undocumented criminals of their quest to hit their numbers. So that they’re threatening extremely expert employees who had been typically actively recruited by VOA.
This assault was a very long time coming. Trump attacked overseas journalists at VOA throughout his first time period, when the administration refused to increase their visas due to nationwide safety and in addition as a result of they supposedly may very well be spies.
On this administration’s nativist worldview, there doesn’t appear to be any immigrant standing, any job held by an immigrant, that insulates somebody from the administration’s deportation frenzy. Nicely, besides the South African refugees. They’re high quality—however provided that they’re white.
